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emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This was really entertaining and cute and I enjoyed it. It had family drama, friendship, issues around identity, loss, healing… I thought it was great. Gray and Amina’s love story was absolutely beautiful and provided a sharp contrast with Amina’s toxic relationship with her controlling and abusive mother. I guess for me, this has a few weaknesses. The first was that it didn’t make sense that full-grown Amina had control of her own money but prior to meeting Gray, she was so lacking in agency and satisfied to leave at home in an increasingly toxic situation when she absolutely didn’t have to and had one supportive parent who would have helped her get out. Secondly, I felt that there were issues and narratives started that could have been explored deeper but were left at the surface- for example Amina’s mother’s discussion of her perspective on motherhood was villainised (rightfully so because that woman WAS the villain), but there was no engagement with the fact that she felt forced by society and her husband to have children and then had limited support from him and he didn’t face much criticism in this. I feel like there were complexities like this sprinkled throughout the book (another example with Julissa’s self-perception) that were begging for coverage a little deeper than what we got. A third issue I had was with the rapid Deus ex Machina resolution- which kind of came a little too easily with everyone confessing their perfidy left and right…. it took away from an otherwise strong story.
Overall, I still really enjoyed this. I’m still screaming at the drama that took place at THAT DINNER when the families came together. That scene was well-written and I went back to read it so many times. The secondary characters were well-developped and interesting without taking away from the main story and I definitely want to read more from them. Recommend this and looking forward to reading more from this author.
Overall, I still really enjoyed this. I’m still screaming at the drama that took place at THAT DINNER when the families came together. That scene was well-written and I went back to read it so many times. The secondary characters were well-developped and interesting without taking away from the main story and I definitely want to read more from them. Recommend this and looking forward to reading more from this author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Violence, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, and Physical abuse
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